With Election Day just days away, Delaware Public Media continues its look at key legislative races. Today, we head to New Castle County where one district – the 10th House district – is sure to send a fresh face to Leg Hall. Delaware Public Media contributor Martin Martinez sat down with the candidates there.
[audio:http://www.wdde.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/tenthdistrict.mp3|titles= Delaware Public Media contributor Martin Martinez profiles the race in the 10th House District.]
Two newcomers will attempt to fill the seat of Delaware's northernmost representative district after the incumbent, Dennis E. Williams, lost in the Democratic primary. The victor, Sean Matthews faces the Republican candidate, Judy Travis in the general election.
Travis comes from a small business background. She is known for her volunteer group, “Stockings for Soldiers”, which sends care packages to troops overseas. Matthews is a special education teacher who works in the Brandywine School District. He is also the president of Chalfonte's civic association.
Both candidates point to jobs, the economy and education as key issues.
For Travis, creating jobs is a matter of seeing the state through the eyes of companies that could potentially bring them to Delaware. She says taxes, crime and low student test scores keep companies from doing business here.
“When you add those factors in, it is not conducive to bringing new business in,” said Travis.
Travis adds companies are also avoiding Delaware because of its reluctance to adopt Right to Work policies.
“Businesses will say 'are you a right to work state' and we say no; they won't even talk to us,” said Travis.
She said she supports Right to Work legislation because it would provide more opportunities for people to get back to work and give employers an incentive to hire.
“It has been proven in states like Wisconsin, Michigan and Ohio that when they do become Right to Work states their budgets go from red to black.”
Matthews disagrees. He believes if Right to Work laws were passed in Delaware, the middle class wages would suffer, hurting the economy.
“I don't think that now at a time when the middle [class] is struggling we should be making it our goal to sponsor legislation that would reduce wages for construction workers which is what happens under Right to Work legislation,” said Matthews. “I don't have a magic bullet about improving the economy, but I do know that Right to Work is wrong for Delaware.”
Matthews sees opportunities to create jobs by investing in infrastructure. He believes his district would benefit with collaborations with federal and state government to develop areas like the former Tri-State Mall and CitiSteel sites.
“Manufacturing might never come back to the levels that it was but I do think that the sheer number of infrastructure improvements that are needed in this state, if we would responsibly invest in them, that would be a big boost to employment,” said Matthews.
He would also like to see the General Assembly continue to look at raising the minimum wage.
“We also need to increase opportunities for workers to provide a good life for themselves,” said Matthews.
Travis argues that raising the minimum wage could end up hurting workers. She says employers are always looking at their bottom line when it comes to hiring and a higher minimum wage could make employers less willing to hire more workers, putting more work on the shoulders of current employees.
“I think that we've raised it enough. Anymore would be punitive to business and it would stop the growth of business, and we need to make sure that the businesses stay intact so they'll hire more people.”
Travis adds she believes the majority of minimum wage level jobs are entry-level part-time jobs that are not meant to support a family.
The budget was also a common topic of conversation for both candidates.
Travis said she would like to look at the budget as a whole and search for possible cuts, wherever they may be.
“Out of the $3.8 billion, I contend that there's got to be a little bit of fluff, there's got to be a little bit of waste, there's got to be a lot of bit of area where we can examine and audit and correct,” said Travis.
While she says she’s not certain exactly where to cut, she would look at the state payroll and what she called the “top-heavy” administration of schools and government. And Travis says she believes those in charge of finding the cuts are not taking the issue seriously, adding lawmakers must be responsible and brave to able to make the necessary cuts.
“It's so much easier for the majority party to say 'we need all these other taxes that we've just spoken of so we're going to raise those taxes', well I want to say [..] 'what about all the money you've got now, lets check that out first,” said Travis.
Matthews does not see cuts as a solution to balancing the budget. Much of the budget, he contends, is required spending and making cuts is not as easy as Travis makes it sound.
“Well it would be great if we could just find enough inefficiencies in government to make the kind of improvements we need but they flatly don't exist,” said Matthews “I'm always looking for ways to make government more efficient but there aren't enough cuts you can make, there aren't enough 'cut-able' things that would get us the revenue we need for the projects that we need.”
Instead Matthews proposes improving departments' efficiency by updating technology and resources, such as providing DelDOT with better equipment to fix and maintain roads. He also suggests a hard look at the state’s tax brackets.
“We have to figure out fair ways for those who can afford to pay, to contribute an equitable share to our economy so everyone prospers,” Matthews said. “You're never going to be able to just cut your way to prosperity.”
Matthews and Travis do find common ground on education. Both see state and federal oversight as a hindrance to teachers and student growth, and believe the local school districts and teachers should decide what's best for students.
“There are too many federal and state mandates that are dictating the way we spend the money locally, said Matthews. “I have faith in our in the elected school boards of our elected school districts and our teachers, our parents our community. They'll tell you what they need, what they're communities need and what they're schools need. I think we should do a top to bottom evaluation of what we are spending now how we can better spend that and go from there.”
Matthews and Travis also agree that the current system state testing does not accurately asses the state of the education system in Delaware. Travis said teachers are forced to teach their students with a very narrow curriculum that puts a lot of unwanted pressure on students and teachers.
“We've lost the spontaneity that the teachers had, the creativeness that the teachers used to have by teaching all sorts of wonderful side subjects,” said Travis. “Now, they're only teaching towards a test.”
